Here’s a fascinating New York Times article that goes in to the evolution of religion. It’s a scientific look at why we as a species have come to believe in God. Is it an advantageous trait that we evolved to survive or was it handed down to us from God?

The read is rather long and somewhat involved, but I found it interesting and I assume many of you will too. It’s great for all you stuck out there in cubicle land like myself, but be warned that it will suck you in :)

Here’s a little taste to wet your palette:

So trying to explain the adaptiveness of religion means looking for how it might have helped early humans survive and reproduce. As some adaptationists see it, this could have worked on two levels, individual and group. Religion made people feel better, less tormented by thoughts about death, more focused on the future, more willing to take care of themselves. As William James put it, religion filled people with â€œa new zest which adds itself like a gift to life . . . an assurance of safety and a temper of peace and, in relation to others, a preponderance of loving affections.â€

Such sentiments, some adaptationists say, made the faithful better at finding and storing food, for instance, and helped them attract better mates because of their reputations for morality, obedience and sober living. The advantage might have worked at the group level too, with religious groups outlasting others because they were more cohesive, more likely to contain individuals willing to make sacrifices for the group and more adept at sharing resources and preparing for warfare.

…

This internal push and pull between the spiritual and the rational reflects what used to be called the â€œGod of the gapsâ€ view of religion. The presumption was that as science was able to answer more questions about the natural world, God would be invoked to answer fewer, and religion would eventually recede. Research about the evolution of religion suggests otherwise. No matter how much science can explain, it seems, the real gap that God fills is an emptiness that our big-brained mental architecture interprets as a yearning for the supernatural. The drive to satisfy that yearning, according to both adaptationists and byproduct theorists, might be an inevitable and eternal part of what Atran calls the tragedy of human cognition.

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19 Responses to “The Evolution Of Religion”

Humanity will not lose the “need” for religion until people stop dying. Losing someone you love is a nasty, horrible, painful reality that most people don’t think they could handle with out resorting to denial – AKA “belief in the afterlife”.

I just briefly skimmed your quotes. I like Richard Dawkins’ explanation better. That is, that religion isn’t in itself adaptive, but a by product of other valuable evolutionary traits. Like it’s very hand for a child to blindly accept what a parent or authority figure commands or instructs.
Exemplia gratia: If Dad tells little ug not to enter the bear cave, it’s possible that little ug will enter and live to tell the tale. But if there’s a bear there and well… no more little og. If the little ug blindly accepts daddy’s warning and never enters a bear cave, he’ll have a better chance of producing offspring… Questioning that command isn’t very adaptive. And so if you’re told by dad that there’s a god in the sky, etc, at a young age, you’ll probably just accept it as true and not really question it.
It makes sense, it’s not a complete explanation. Dawkins proffers more ideas, and I’m sure others have to. I think it’s interesting to think that if you were born in another culture you would have a different religion, viewpoint, etc.
I think the test would be not to raise any children in a relgious background, teach them to think for themselves, and then when they are adults introduce them to all relgions. If, as relgious people say, their religion is so obviously great, then children would adopt it. I personally think they’d laughthemselves senseless at the inanity of it all….

Well, Skids, Research does show that young children actaully have a brain more suited for accepting everythin that it’s told. You have to, you can find out for yourself wether fire is hot or not, but the odds of finding out wether or not stepping over that kliff will kill you, aren’t good.

Recovered Catholic:
I disagree. I believe that people are actaully learning, more and more, to think for themselves. I actaully think that, as education improves and more people learn how to actaully reason, religion will decline.

Not everyone instantly drop into denile when something bad happens. The problem is that religion is so self-preserving on it. What normally happens when someone is denial, that they eventually see it is true, simply by confrontation. With religion, people keep saying you’re right… and it’s not helping.

What’s your bases for saying that education is improving. It seems to me that if anything the quality of education is declining rapidely in this country with the helping hand of the federal government. The republicans know it is a lot easier to manipulate people’s perceptions if they are kept as far from critical thinking as possible.

I just feel bad for everyone who thinks having faith in God is denile and loving Jesus makes you “religious”. Christianity is not a religion, just lisen and those who think they “know” obviously don’t have a relationship with the Father God, the Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. But that is what prayer is for.
I also would like to say, that all the people who are “for themselfs” can say anything, but when people of Faith speak the truth in which God Almighty gave to us word for word, we are sshhushed!?! If this is a free country, and one nation under God then how come everyone can’t be heard. People today are too open minded and too close hearted! That’s my opinion, and I once was a not believer so you don’t have to say to yourself “oh she was born or brainwashed into christianity”! I actually chose this path after God chose me! And I am more Happy in a relationship with him than anyone can actually say “they are happy living the way they want to”. Also everyone and everything dies, are you serious about not thinking there is no after life and that you’re going to sleep for all eternity. Wow that’s retarded. And if God is not real, please explain to me all the supernatural things that happen to billions of people everyday?! Don’t mean this in any kind of mean way! I am a very loving , nice, caring, compassionant(?),understanding 23 yrs. old, Native American lady, and I get along great with everyone who is different from me. I love people!
God Bless you all and I hope you have an Amazing & Awesome year, and I mean that from my heart! Rachael Luv
* If you want to get a hold of me I am on Myspace under Rachael Luv, who isn’t now a days! Ciao

If it’s not, please, enlighten us. What is Christianity? Is Judaism a religion? If so, what requires Christianity to be given a different definition? Why is it commonly referred to as a religion?

My guess is that you are trying to make your religion ‘special’ by artificially and unjustifiably excluding it from the category ‘religion’.

“but when people of Faith speak the truth in which God Almighty gave to us word for word, we are sshhushed!?!”

Bullshit. You’re preaching here, aren’t you? No one is ‘shushing’ you. Your comment will remain here indefinitely. No one is shutting down churches to silence preachers. No one is taping shut the annoying street preacher who stands on the corner by where I work shouting hell-fire at everyone on their way home from work.

“And I am more Happy in a relationship with him than anyone can actually say â€œthey are happy living the way they want toâ€.”

Good for you, but how do you know that you are happier than believers of, say, Islam or even non-believers? I know you won’t believe me, but not all of us need to believe impossible things to be extremely happy and satisfied in life.

“are you serious about not thinking there is no after life and that youâ€™re going to sleep for all eternity.”

Yep, but it’s not sleep. I expect that what I experience as ‘me’ will be utterly annihilated when my brain ceases functioning. Thinking that this belief is ‘retarded’ is your business. Your negative opinion of an idea doesn’t make it untrue.

“And if God is not real, please explain to me all the supernatural things that happen to billions of people everyday?!”

Show me one. Oh, and define what you mean by ‘supernatural’ without reference to material things. You’ll likely find it impossible.

“Donâ€™t mean this in any kind of mean way!”

You don’t? You’ve implied that everyone who disagrees with your mythology:

a) lives for themselves
b) is a malicious censurer
c) is closed-hearted
d) isn’t really that happy
e) is retarded

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